Plea for regions to get mental health crisis teams

A regional mental health advocate says there is an urgent need for mental health crisis teams to address suicide rates in the country.

Andrew Markovs yesterday received a State Government award for his advocacy work and says Western Australia has significantly improved its mental health programs in the past decade.

However, he says more needs to be done to reduce the rates of suicide and mental health issues, which are much higher in regional areas.

He says the biggest need is for 24-hour mental health crisis teams in major regional centres.

"It's eminently practical and I'd confidently predict that we'll have it within a couple of years," he said.

"Certainly other states have it.

"At the moment it is probably the number one priority in need for regional WA mental health services but in lots of other ways we're getting all sorts of services that we never had.

"In the other Australian states, regional centres such as Albany would have their own full-time, dedicated, mental health crisis team, so that if a mental health crisis happens there is a trained and appropriate resource to be called on.

"At the moment, the poor old coppers are the ones who are sent round."